by Gayle Eden
He’d showed up on his motorcycle, all dark brawn, and sinfully handsome, the tats giving him that edgy bad-boy look.
He wasn’t ranching per se, he told them. He’d dropped law school in favor of running a tavern that Salinas had bought. One of those historic places that held nostalgia for Salinas and the surrounding township that was going to be condemned. Rayne said it suited him better. He had nothing in common with people he’d met while taking classes at the University.
He was still partly renovating the tavern. But, they agreed, it did suit him. He was obviously challenged by it.
“He’s going to be mine someday,” Willow told her, coming up alongside her chair as she’d been listening to Rayne joke with Carter, across the way on the porch.
“Yeah?”
“Yep.” The young woman sat down and laughed. “He’ll try and resist but he knows we’re going to end up together. We’ll burn each other up, when we do. Sizzle and sparks. That’s how it is with us.”
“I admire you’re confidence.” Sage chuckled
Those sherry eyes regarded her a moment before she said, “You’ve got Uncle Kane tied in knots. He’s a mess when he looks at you. Totally—in love.”
Sage flushed. “Right.” She didn’t want to say, it’s just sex, so she left it there. She did look at Kane—and find him more often than not, looking at her.
“Going to find Mike, and see if he wants to drive into town with me. Gotta get ice for the coolers.” Willow drew her attention.
“He’s upstairs, I think.”
“Okay.” Willow jumped up. As she walked to the door, Sage saw Rayne’s violet eyes flicker over and watch her. He turned back to attend the others, but when she and Mike came out later, he made an excuse to go down the steps, to his bike—which was near her car.
She couldn’t hear what they said, but yes, she could read the body language. Willow, of course, was all confidence and sass. Rayne laughed at something she said, but wiped his hand over his face in a telling way, when she’d left.
Later, after dinner, and everyone drifting into their own thing, she was gathering vegetable scraps for Rio’s animals, and Kane was cleaning the grills. They met on the back porch, his coming in, and her going out.
He leaned over, having his hands full, and kissed her on the mouth.
She added the peelings to a tub Rio would take out the camper, and went to clean the pan with the water hose.
Kane came joined her, waiting on the hose apparently, so he could spray off the grill racks.
A drip went into the full pan after she finished her eyes as distracted as her mind, traveling from Kane’s bare feet, up the ragged denims he wore. They were wet and dirty. Her gaze lingered on the skin just above the waistband.
He’d been checking out her legs in denim shorts. Her hair was up in a clipped muss, and she wore a blue tank shirt. Eventually their eyes met. Held. Sage still tasted that too brief kiss on her lips.
He drawled, “You fit in well here, Sage.”
“Thank you. I should be looking at hou—”
“—No hurry on that.”
He sauntered close and took the nozzle out of her fingers, though not looking from her eyes. Green eyes peering down into hers, their bodies closer than they had been in weeks, with those other intimate memories between them. Kane went on, “Mike is thriving here. He has friends. And he told me at practice the other day, he was glad you’d brought him here.”
He’d told Sage much the same. He was more confident and less brooding every day.
Kane murmured, “You like your job. You and I haven’t stepped on each other’s nerves—too bad.”
She grinned, remembering a couple of clashes they had, some minor snipping when she was on her period, and they were both sexually cranked up—unable to do anything about it. Once, when she had been cleaning up the house and he’d left a mess in the kitchen, being in a hurry, they had words—turned out it was simply that he hadn’t had time to clean up. He usually did. She knew that. She was just tired, pushing herself, so she wouldn’t feel like she was there on a free ride.
Sage uttered, looking up at him as she rubbed her wet hand on her shorts to dry it, “You haven’t—gone out much.”
His expression said he knew exactly what she meant.
“I’ve made no secret that I want you.” His free hand cupped her cheek. He leaned down and gave her a supple kiss, saying against them, “There’s nothing out there that is better than what we have, Sage.”
Breathing shaky, she managed, “I don’t think I could handle it if you did, anyway. I know how good you feel, touching, kissing, doing what you do, and I just—”
“Hey.” He lifted his head and tilted up her chin. “It’s because it is you, and what we feel together.”
She wet her lips.
He grinned, but muttered, “These dry spells are hell.”
“Yeah.” Her hand touched his bare chest between his hard pecs.
He watched it touch him, down his ribs, his abs tightening before he captured it. “I’m rock hard.” He kissed her again.
This time there was tongue play. They forgot themselves until an uttered, “Grosse.” Cut through their haze.
They separated hearing Mike’s voice, seeing he was carrying an empty cooler, as was Willow, who winked and said to him, “You won’t always think so.”
She met Sage’s eyes. “Carry on. We’re just taking these to Carter so he can fill them.”
Sage looked at her son, who was flushed and looking between her and Kane. She felt her own face was heated. She was totally at a loss for a moment.
It was Kane who said, “When you’re done helping Willow, come back around here, Mike.”
“Sure.”
They were out of sight and Kane took in Sage’s flushed cheeks and watched her chew her lip a moment.
“Don’t worry about it.”
She released her lip, and a breath. “I do.”
“He’s not freaked out. It just embarrassed him a little.” He confided, “We recently had a—talk?”
“About what?”
“Something he heard at school. Sex stuff.”
“Oh.” She flushed deeper. “I wasn’t really good having the initial talk with him. My mother never would have even said the word sex, so when we—I was pretty ignorant.”
“He’s not. It’s just that going to a school with older guys…”
“Thanks.”
He laughed. “It was probably most uncomfortable and nerve wracking hour of my life,” he admitted. “I stuttered around for the first ten minutes, but I could see him regretting he asked me, so I decided to be blunt and calm, just act naturally would do the trick.”
“And it did?”
“For now.” He laughed. “At least, he told me he would come ask me if anything else came up.”
“Wow. I didn’t even think of stuff like that coming up.”
“Me either. I was just—am just—proud to be his dad, glad that he is here and in my life.”
“I’m glad he has you. All of you. But you in particular, glad that he can see what a real man is like.”
“Thanks for that. I regret our first time around, Sage.”
“It’s true. You’re a great father.”
He was pleased she said it and a little flushed on his cheekbones, so she murmured, “I’ll just go finish what I was doing in the kitchen…” and left him to his grill cleaning.
~*~
Up early the day of the BBQ, Kane got chores done with Carter’s help, and saw Rio working a few hours with his animals. Back at the ranch house, Sage had made them croissants and juice. Coffee was waiting. Following breakfast, Kane drove Mike into town, to pick up a few things. Mike spent the money he’d gotten from catching Kane smoking on Willow a gift.
Michael said, as they had it wrapped, a set of mystery novels she’d told him he could pick up for her that were on sale—”She’s going to come watch me play before she leaves.”
“That’s great
.” Kane eyed him, sometimes still amazed the young man was his. “You’ll be able to play sports at the school this coming year.”
“I’m stoked.”
Though Mike turned twelve, he was still in a higher grade, still hanging with boys a little older, and Kane asked him, “Was there something in particular you wanted for your Birthday? I got you something, but I probably should have asked.”
Mike took the bag containing the gift and they left the bookstore. It wasn’t until they were in the truck he said, “Not things really. But I need to get some clothes soon… and going with Mom….” He rolled his eyes.
“We can do that.”
“You wouldn’t have to pay for them. Mom usua—”
Kane cut him off, “You’re my son too. I don’t mind at all buying your clothes. If you’re anything like me, you’ll have a growth spurt this year and another between sixteen and eighteen. That’s when I finally stopped.”
“Yeah.” He looked at Kane’s profile. “But I could like earn an allowance.”
“Sure. We’ll work it out.”
“Going to be a great party.”
“Yep.”
“So what did you get me?”
Kane laughed and looked at him after making the turn off. “I got you a cowboy hat.”
Snorting, Mike glanced out the window. But, he said, “Cool.”
~*~
Picnic tables spread, grills going, everyone gathered, and there was informal eating, talking, and lots of laughing, even some dancing that Willow and Dani, Skye too, did to the music wafting from a CD player.
Jessie showed her dance skills, more teasing with Rio than anything. Sage sat back after eating, watching everyone, her sandaled feet propped on a cooler, having worn khaki shorts and a sleeveless linen shirt, she didn’t have time to do more than clip her hair up that morning before helping prep.
There were two birthday cakes, and gifts on one of the tables. She recognized what it meant to the brothers too, these new relationships, and how their lives were changing because they met their soul mates—had more people to love them. She was always fascinated by the contrast and similarities between Carter, Rio, and Kane. They were different, but the genes, the way they moved, in some ways, the way they worked and took their responsibilities, was the same.
Finished at the grill, having cleaned them again, Kane had gone in to clean up, and emerged in dark Levis and a black T-shirt, his boots. His hair was a little damp. He’d probably shaved with an electric razor she thought, smelling his cologne and soap when he took a lawn chair beside hers and opened a beer.
They watched the gift openings, Kane smiling when Mike put on the cowboy hat, and thanked Sage for the new cell phone she got him. Willow embraced her, pleased with the bracelet Sage bought her, and then plopped on Kane’s lap, saying, “Thank you, Uncle.” Making him laugh and dodge half the kisses she planted all over his face. He’d gotten her an interview with an old PI turned novelist in Memphis, who hired college students in the summer to do research and interviews.
At some later point, Sage was drawn into the group of women. They talked while the men cleaned up., and then put on coffee, as everyone but Mike drifted out front to the porch. He was picked up by a friend’s dad, for a movie night.
Kane asked her, when they were standing at the far end, watching the sunset, “What were all you ladies whispering about in the kitchen?”
Sage leaned and whispered in his ear when he ducked to hear, “They’re all pretty sure they’re pregnant. The tests have all been positive. They had some questions. They’re going to tell the men later tonight.”
Holding her gaze when she was done speaking, his gaze then skimmed down her body, recalling, during those intimate times, how he kissed every mark she had from carrying his son.
Conversation and laughter was ruffling around them, but Sage felt that heat and pull towards him. She felt that sensation low in her belly, the flush on her skin, having those images and sensations in her mind of the two of them, the way he wrapped her in his strong arms, or pulled her into his browned body. The rough, yet gentle way, his fingers caressed.
Kane murmured, “None of them have a mother, or someone they can get that kind of advice from, I guess.”
She nodded, her gaze skimming his face.
He seemed to forget that everyone could see them from their chairs or standing at the other side of the banisters as he reached his free hand up, to tuck a strand of her hair that waved loose behind her ear.
She shivered. Turned, so that she was looking at the drive and the setting sun while blowing a slow breath out that wasn’t steady.
Rayne was taking his leave. She talked with him as he turned a moment before getting on his bike, thanking her, and Kane, for the hospitality.
Willow was at her car, getting ready to go to Jesse’s. The two talked a bit, hidden mostly on the other side of the car.
“See you later, bro,” Rio said. Sage turned in time to embrace Jesse, and share a wink. Then Carter and Skye said they were going to go to the barn, to crash out, after some movies.
Eventually it was just herself and Kane standing on the porch, the last vehicle heading down the drive.
“I’ll get the dishes done,” she offered, going to step around him.
He caught her hand and pulled her into him, his head descending. He scorched her with an erotic kiss. Breathless afterwards, she didn’t resist as he took her hand and headed inside, up the stairs, to his room. There, kissing again, they fell on the bed, shoes, boots, clothing removed amid kissing, moaning, touching and nipping and hot, quick, breathing as the orange sunset bathed the room.
Muscles shifting, tightening under his bronze skin, Kane covered her with his hard-necked frame, his hands holding her arms high while he filled her with a silken hot cock.
“Yes.” She sobbed. “Fill me. I need you.”
“Jesus.” He surged in deeper, thrust and ground deeply into her, Sage’s cries, the feverish clutching of her hands came with the upward movement of her lush hips to take all of him.
For several moments, he gave her all she wanted, and then rolled, putting her astride him. Hands full of her breasts, Kane arched as she rode him, her hair coming down and falling around her face and shoulders, lips parted, and eyes glittering at him with bliss.
“Sage…” He drove his head back into the pillow, giving into the orgasm that took him out of his body.
On their sides, later, winded, legs still entwined, he uttered hoarsely, “Sorry. That caught me off guard.”
“It was great.” She soothed his hard back, and then eased away, going to the bathroom to wash...
They made it downstairs eventually, got everything in order, and locked for the night.
Sage had left, gone to fill her bath while he was outside. She had a glass of wine, and after washing her hair, and lulled in the tub. Kane knocked just as she stepped out and wrapped herself in her towel.
“It’s not locked.”
He came partway in. “I’m getting a shower. I just wanted to see which bed you wanted to sleep in.”
“Yours.”
He grinned. “I changed the sheets. Hoping you’d say that.”
After he left, she dried and piled her damp hair up, slipping on a gown that had thin straps, and felt cool next to her skin.
When Kane joined her in his rooms, wearing only a towel, she was sitting by the open window, listening to the night sounds.
He skimmed his hand up her thigh, taking a drag from the cigarette she smoked before putting it out. Turning her around, Kane sank down and pushed up the hem, parting her legs, brushing his fingers through her curls while he stared up at her.
When she was slick and obviously aroused, he watched himself touch her, parting the folds and eyeing the sexy glisten on her inner lips and clit, the shimmer on his fingers.
“Kane…I can’t balance on this ledge.”
He lay back on the hard floor. “Ride my tongue.”
She pulled off the
gown and was astride his face, her hips moving as he thrust his tongue into her. Sucking in between his fingers tracing along the seam of her ass, he brought her to climax, erotically, exquisitely—then took her to his bed.
Leaning over her, looking into her post climax eyes, he whispered, “I love you, Sage.”
Her eyes filled with tears. She blinked, but her voice clogged with them. “Kane—I know. It wasn’t part of the deal, or whatever we agreed to. But the truth is, I never stopped loving you. I loved the younger you. This is deeper. It may not be what you want to hear. But I can’t go on making love with you without saying it.”
She reached and cupped his hard jaw, seeing the truth in his green eyes. “I was so afraid of getting hurt again, Kane. The way I feel about you, I just couldn’t take that kind of pain…”
“Baby.” He leaned and kissed her, saying when he lifted, “I hope I never hurt you again. I’ll be a pain in the ass sometimes, but I promise you, I just want to love you, Sage. I want to do it. Openly. To show you. To touch you. Kiss you. Be close to you…”
“I love you too.” Tears were blinding her. She breathed in, kissed him. Pulling his head down, kissing him deeply. Her arms went round him, tighter, as he held her tighter.
In his ear when the kiss ended, she whispered hoarsely, “I never stopped. I loved you the moment I saw you. Despite what happened in between, as soon as I saw you again, I fell even deeper. “
After a long bout of kissing, Kane sat up.
She did too.
Her hands were in his when Kane held her gaze and confessed, “I told Mike. I told him I loved you.”
‘What did he say?” She wiped her cheeks.
“That he knew it.” Kane’s lips curved. “He said he knew it, and that he knew you loved me, too.”
She grinned and then laughed a bit.
“I want to get married, Sage. I want to marry you,” Kane whispered, searching her face. “I’ll adjust my life. I’ll support whatever you want to do, but I want you, forever.”
“Yes.”
“Do you want a big wedding?”
